Friday’s rain-out predicated that a doubleheader would be played on Saturday. The first game took twelve innings and five Angel relief pitchers to resolve, but we’ll take it if it comes with another victory over one of the two teams ahead of the Halos in the tight race for that second wild card slot.
Run Expectancy Rundown
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1UhqTOsyoYnVlxwBAdnAz0vt4I_ayNn-FODUgLW0KDH8/pubchart” query=”oid=1976391661&format=interactive” width=”623″ height=”429″ /]Yoenis Cepedes they are not, but the two Angel left fielders in this game had their hands on three of the four runs the Angels scored in the first game of the doubleheader. Kole Calhoun continues to be ice cold. The right fielder is now hitting .150 in his last ten games with no home runs and 16 strikeouts. It is worrisome to see that even after the September call-ups, the best pinch hitting options are still David DeJesus and Matt Joyce.
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1UhqTOsyoYnVlxwBAdnAz0vt4I_ayNn-FODUgLW0KDH8/pubchart” query=”oid=1154832181&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”341″ /]Hot hitting rookie Miguel Sano did some damage to the Angels when he blasted a low and inside fastball from Trevor Gott into the stands to tie the game at three in the seventh inning. Torii Hunter continued to get on base against the Angels by swatting two singles.
Starting Pitcher Scores
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1UhqTOsyoYnVlxwBAdnAz0vt4I_ayNn-FODUgLW0KDH8/pubchart” query=”oid=161400381&format=interactive” width=”584″ height=”293″ /]With all the hand-wringing about young starting pitchers not being able to handle the innings load of a regular MLB season, it was good to see Andrew Heaney come through with another really good outing. Counting his time in Triple-A, this was the 30th start of the year for Heaney, but he no-hit the Twins through the first five innings of this contest and then left the game in the seventh inning with a 3-1 lead after throwing 91 pitches.
Bullpen Battle
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”spreadsheets/d/1UhqTOsyoYnVlxwBAdnAz0vt4I_ayNn-FODUgLW0KDH8/pubchart” query=”oid=1141913419&format=interactive” width=”620″ height=”315″ /]This was a tight game, and the Angel bullpen performed valiantly. After Gott gave up the home run, he got himself into a runners-at-the-corners-with-no-outs jam which threatened to hand the lead over to the Twins, but Trevor got the next three outs, one on a safety squeeze play that Trevor fielded and threw to home for the out, to preserve the 3-3 tie. Fernando Salas struck out Trevor Plouffe to end the eighth with two men on base, and Mike Morin had a nice strikeout of Sano in 11th on a 95 mph low-and-away fastball that caught Sano looking for strike three.
Game Flow
The Angels scored the game winner when the fourth batter of the inning, Kole Calhoun, scorched a liner to the shortstop Eduardo Escobar for an inning ending double play, but Escobar couldn’t close his glove in time and the ball squirted out instead, scoring Dan Robertson from third base.
Halo Hero
Facing great pitching from Kyle Gibson and the Twin bullpen, it was going to take some small ball to eek out a win in this one, and Scioscia played small ball full throttle in this game. The Angels successfully stole three bases (!), had two successful sacrifice bunts (!), and had a key hit-and-run in the seventh inning when David Murphy hit a double with Taylor Featherston on the move that would have resulted in a run scored if not for fan interference on the play.
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